Tomb of Ten Thousand Shadows
by Sigyn Laufeyson
Summary: As Manfred Powell and Lara Croft fight for control of the power to travel the Time-Stream


"See the world in a grain of sand." As soon as the crystal hit the iris it began to glow all at once, a firey white heat that spread instantaniously from the iris, then the entire eye, and finally to the Triangle itself. The light was brighter than the Sun, brighter than the white-hot flame at the very tip of a welder's torch.  
Lara raised her hand to sheild her vision.  
"The All-Seeing Eye," Powell whispered in awe, "The Power of God."  
"Here's a power for you." Lara said cocking her fist and drove it straight at his face and straight though the Triangle.  
The room exploded in a burst of incandecent light.  
When she openned her eyes again she was back home, lieing on the floor of the library the sun streaming though the window. She was crying she had just left her father who had refused to come back with her she wipped away her tears and looked around.  
No, this wasn't her time but a memory, she was sevan, and the Manor library was on fire. She could feel the heat as the fire feasted on the old hardbacks and polished oak bookshelves.  
She saw Little Lara trapped by a wall of burning flame. Lara heard the terrified scream.  
"Don't be scared" the adult Lara called out to herself.  
"Oh, I think you should be scared." Powell came around from behind her addressing both her and her younger self, "You're going to die."  
Lara turned to face him.  
"You died in a fire like this when you were sevan years-old," Powell shook his head, "You never lived at all. No tombs; No Pulizer Przes; No fancy cars just the cold, cold dirt you were buried in."  
Her younger self screamed again and Lara remembered that the fire had started in the wastebasket but her father-  
"He never came Lara and you burned to death" Powell's gaze bore into her, "This is the power of the Triangle Lara, the Power of God."  
Lara suddenly relized what was happeningwhat was behind all she was experiancing Powell and she were fighting for control of that power.  
"You died Lara. You never lived. Never."  
Lara smiled and shook her head, "In your dreams." Lara concentrated.  
The image of Powell burst into flames and then he was gone.  
that was when she heard the baby cry above her.  
"Evelynn."  
She ran past the drama unfolding before her eyes she openned the door and ran through the wall of flame up the stairs to the nursery.  
Her little sister locked eyes with Lara and reached for her.  
" Hey Eve, come here big girl."Lara said as the reached down and picked up the little sister that died in a housefire, "Sorry Daddy." She said as she held the baby close to her heart. She closed her eyes and concentrated.  
She was back in the Tomb of Ten Thousand Shadows.  
The instant before Powell killed Alex, they were as still as wax figures in a wax museum, she looked down at the baby in her arms but the baby was gone. She had morphed into the most beautiful young woman Lara had ever seen staring up at her from a torrent of curls.  
"Evie?"  
"Yes, Lara?"  
Time was rewinding itself in slow motion. The knife flew out of Alex and was returning to Powell's hand she grabbed the blade which hung in mid-air.  
"Ow!" She stepped back suprized and looked at her palm. Her palm was seared and the knife hadn't moved at all.  
"Lara!" Evelynn gasped.  
"I'm fine." Lara lied.  
She couldn't move the blade without hurting herself. She looked at Evelynn and felt the strength of her resolve. Lara gripped the knife again and yanked.  
Forget the calculations. She willed the pain to the back of her mind. The searing pain and the smell she was only now aware of. She threw her whole body wieght behind the blade finally it moved, about a millimeter, but it moved.  
Lara gitted her teeth and tried again  
She pushed, strained, dug into the rock with the balls of her feet, she felt muscles quivering from stress, she felt the heat of the blade change as it got hotter the harder she yanked. The pain was too ridiculous to even concider so she ignored it.  
Blood began to ooze down her arm as the knife cut into her hand and she had the strangest sensation. She felt as if the knife wasn't being rotated but the world itself was rotating, ghostly weirdly catching up up with itself.  
She lost track of all time at last when she looked up the tip of the blade was pointing not at Alex but at Powell.  
She stood and stepped back into place which was now between Alex and her sister. The world spun again and the knife shot staight into Powell's shoulder.  
He staggered backward and dropped the Triangle.  
It fell to the floor and shattered to fairydust. It hit the light and glittered into nothingness.  
The tomb rumbled threatening to bury them all. Lara followed Alex, her little sister in toe and suddenly a new light caught her attention danced across the cieling causing her to look back.  
Powell held a small, silver, pocketwatch it was her father's pocketwatch complete with the cameo of her mother on the inside. He father's pocketwatch was never recovered and that was why. Powell took it.  
He took it after he shot her father between the eyes.  
"Lara...No...We have to go"  
"I know." She passed him her sister, "Get my sister out of here!"  
"Lara...No...I'm staying with you."  
"Eve," Lara smiled, "I promise, I promise I'll make it out."  
"Just hurry." Alex told her and put Evelynn on his dogsled.  
Lara watched as her sister disappear back up the frozen tunnel hoping she 'd make it out of had a lot of life to catch up on after she took care of Powell.


End file.
